Case study · Startup
Replacing buzzword matching with verified, credibility-scored candidates
An MVP recruitment platform for Credalgo, matching candidates to roles by verified experience and psychometric testing, not keyword filters.
On time & on budget
MVP delivered within a fixed grant-funding budget and timeline
Grant-funded
Taken from concept to a working platform inside grant constraints
Django
Python framework powering the credibility-matching engine
The client
Credalgo (a mashup of “credibility” and “algorithm”) is a recruitment platform built by a founder who spent years as a recruitment consultant working inside traditional Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Frustrated by how little those systems actually verified about a candidate beyond keyword matches, he wanted to build something better: a platform that gives employers a genuine, verified read on a candidate, and gives candidates a fairer shot than a buzzword-matching algorithm.
The challenges
- •A fixed grant-funding budget and timeline, with no room for scope creep.
- •Building real candidate verification (peer and colleague authentication, plus psychometric testing), not just another keyword filter dressed up as AI.
- •Standing apart from entrenched, buzzword-matching ATS platforms that candidates and employers were already tired of.
What we delivered
- ✓An MVP built on Python’s Django framework, scoped and delivered within the grant’s budget and timeline.
- ✓A candidate profile and verification system, combining peer and colleague authentication with psychometric testing into a single credibility score.
- ✓A matching engine that scores candidates against a role’s actual selection criteria, not surface-level keyword matches.
- ✓Close, collaborative delivery with a founder who needed a technical partner as invested in getting it right as he was.
The outcome
- ✓MVP delivered on time and on budget, inside the constraints of grant funding.
- ✓A working, credibility-scored alternative to keyword-matching CVs and ATS systems, built and ready to take to candidates and employers.
The founder’s take
“Credalgo's founder had lived the frustration of traditional ATS systems first-hand as a recruitment consultant, and knew exactly what a better experience needed to look like for candidates and employers alike. Delivering the MVP on time and on budget, inside a fixed grant-funding window, is exactly the kind of constraint we're built for.”
Thomas Madden
Founder & CEO, IO Analytics